Manufacturers of slot machines used in casinos and other gaming establishments are developing coinless redemption slot machines. Lucky winners using these machines receive their payout in the form of a cashout ticket instead of coins or currency bills. The cashout ticket is encoded, typically in the form of a barcode, with a number that is associated with the payout amount. This type of barcoded cashout ticket is assigned a ticket number when it is dispensed to the game player, and this ticket number is printed as a barcode on the face of the ticket. The payout amount is not encoded on the ticket, but rather is stored, typically in a remote database, along with the ticket number. Another form of a cashout ticket includes two barcodes. One of the barcodes represents a ticket number, and another barcode represents the payout amount.
To redeem the payout, the winner may insert the cashout ticket into a validator or acceptor of a slot machine or casino redemption machine which validates the ticket and either dispenses the payout amount in cash or awards the winner a number of credits commensurate with the payout amount. The validator also accepts currency bills. When the casino operators empty the validators, the cartridges may contain a combination of currency bills and cashout tickets.
Most casinos are equipped with currency processing devices which rapidly sort, count, and authenticate currency bills. However, these machines cannot handle or recognize cashout tickets, so the operator must manually hand-sort the currency bills from the cashout tickets so that they can be processed separately. The hand-sorting and manual-entry steps are both time and labor intensive.
Other markets besides the gaming market would benefit from a device that could process both currency and currency substitutes. For example, some retailers are placing self-checkout stations at the point-of-sale. A customer gathers the products to be purchased and self-scans the products at the self-checkout station without the assistance of a cashier. The customer may pay by credit or debit card or by cash, for example. If paying by cash, the customer typically inserts the currency bills into a bill acceptor or bill validator at the self-checkout station. However, the customer may also desire to redeem store coupons, for example, at the point-of-sale. To do so, the customer would deposit store coupons into a receptacle at the self-checkout station. The cartridges in the self-checkout station would thus contain both currency bills and store coupons.
When the store operators empty the cartridges, they must hand-sort the store coupons from the currency bills and process the store coupons separately. Again, this hand sorting and separate processing is tedious and requires multiple counting machines. A single machine that could process both currency bills and store coupons would save time, lower costs, and increase the overall desirability of using self-checkout stations.
Banking institutions may also benefit from a device capable of reading both currency bills and substitute currency media such as checks, deposit slips, etc.